Summer in the Cellar, 2014

– David Greene, Cellarmaster, July 2014

Harvest 2014 is only a month away. We've been busy in the cellar preparing for the arrival of the grapes.

Just some quick notes before harvest starts………

We spent three weeks bottling in June. We bottled all four single vineyard chardonnays, Napa Valley Cabernet, Sonoma Coast Syrah and two direct to consumer wines in an Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon and a Cabernet Franc. According to our Associate Winemaker, Alice Sprouse we bottled more wine in this calendar year than any other year to date. The only 2012 wines left to bottle are the Pedregal Vineyard & Annum Cabernet Sauvignon and the Rodgers Creek Vineyard Syrah, which will be bottled next winter.

If you didn’t already know, the 2012’s are truly special wines. When it was over, not only did it feel good to be finished with bottling, but it felt great to bottle such wonderful wines! We bottled a lot of wine, and we made a lot of great wine!

Last week we gave the 2013 appellation chardonnays their last stirring. They will be topped once more and then get pumped to tank during harvest where they will settle before being bottled in early 2015.

This week we pumped out the 2013 Pedregal Vineyard & Annum Cabernet Sauvignon. We "splashed them" so that they get a little air and them put the wine back into barrel. Next week we will do the same to the 2012’s. Also next week, the 2013 SVD chardonnays will get topped and stirred with a possible SO2 addition.

The rest of the summer has been spent doing many projects: cleaning up from bottling, organizing and inventorying bottling supplies, making new tank signs, and Claire and Alan Ramey have reorganized both wine libraries. In the coming month, we will be getting ready for our 3rd annual open house on the 17th, and with harvest fast approaching, Steve is already starting on everybody’s favorite job, cleaning racks!!!! We will also be cleaning ball valves, hoses, tanks and crush equipment.